Thicker than Water
by skieda
Summary: Harry has a twin sister who is given to his Aunt's cousin to look after. He is accepted into Hogwarts but nobody knows where his sister is. Upon finding her, Harry and Sioned set out to challenge every stereotype and belief known in the wizarding world...
1. PROLOGUE

Paula Goulding woke up to someone pounding on her front door. As she rushed down stairs all she could think was that she hoped whoever was at the door at this ungodly hour hadn't woken up their two year old daughter Alice. She wearily opened the front door, and looked down as she heard a whimper. Paula stepped back in horror as she noticed the little baby girl on her doorstep. Gingerly picking her up, she absently noted the child's tawny gold eyes and messy black curls as she pried a crumpled letter out of her hands.

The letter was from the school of freaks that her cousin had been sent to years ago. It stated that the child she held was Lillian's and that her cousin was dead. It also stated that she was to look after the child, and in exchange her family would be protected from the people who had killed the freak.

Walking down into the basement she placed the child in a delapidated musty crate with an old bottle of milk left over from the day before. Leaving the child on the table, she blew out the candle and smirked, thinking to herself that she would have to tell her husband and Alice about Alices new toy. After all, she thought, the child would have to earn its keep somehow.


	2. Chapter 1

"Put it on!" Alice screamed waving around a flimsy piece of pink material that she was loudly proclaiming to be a skirt.

"No, I don't want to" Sioned moaned "Alice its hideous, come on don't make me wear that..."

On her eighth birthday Sioned learnt what the word defiance truly meant. It meant getting beaten black and blue for saying that she wouldn't do Alice's homework. By nine she had figured out that sometimes defiance was the only thing worth the pain and she had learnt that doing Alices homework was worth not having your ribs broken. Now 10 she firmly believed that even defiance wasn't worth the punishment at times and that defying Alice just might come at too high a price. Despite this Sioned would keep defying Alice and her aunt and uncle until they gave up or she was dead.

Alice hated the fact that Sioned wouldn't do what Alice wanted and she did everything in her power to not only get Sioned to do whatever she wanted but to get her in trouble as well. A mean, skinny girl with a little known but vicious right hook, she was used to getting exactly what she wanted as soon as she asked. In her parents opinion and that of her cousins she was a little angel. Everybody else, apart from a few, liked the popular girl who always had the latest in fashion. Those few who didn't like Alice usually were pushed from the school by Alices vicious taunts and ridicule. No one made friends with the one person who dared defy Alice. The only person who Sioned had ever made friends with was Harry, the short kind boy that lived at her cousins house. They had only met once and by accident as well but had liked each other straight away. She had been sent to the garden to do some chores to keep her occupied and had found him in the boiling sun with a pair of clippers cutting the back lawn so that it was perfect. She had grabbed a pair and helped him out, finishing the job in record time. She was brought abruptly out of her thoughts by Alice.

Frustrated, Alice had run out of the room, screaming to her parents about how the pet was playing up again. Suddenly bellowing from the kitchen could be heard and she cringed, knowing that she was going to be punished and a part of her thought that she should be punished for being such an awful pet. She quickly shoved that voice to the back of her mind and prepared herself for whatever punishments her 'lord' decided to be kind enough to give her. She snorted softly, 'Kind? Who were they trying to kid? They were beastly and they were not going to break her yet.' She went and stood in her corner, back straight and hands held neatly in her lap, soldier style. She had used to sit when about to be punished but had found that if you sat there was more of a chance for you to be grabbed by the hair and dragged to your feet.

"Girl!" Bellowed her lord, "You know the punishment for not doing as my angel asks, don't you?"

She didn't respond, eyes staring almost vacantly forward.

"ANSWER ME!"

"Yes." Her uncles face was purpling with pure rage and he had a tic under his right eye adding to the manic quality about him. Suddenly he slapped her, hard enough for her to see stars.

"Yes who?" He asked menacingly.

"Yes... my lord."

"I think I may have been too lenient on you, but I think its high time I remedied that, don't you pet?"

She sighed, glancing down at the floor, "Yes sir."

He smiled causing her to shiver with disgust at the enthusiasm the man clearly felt. Grabbing her by the ear he dragged her downstairs, her feet tripping over themselves on the stairs as she tried to keep her feet. She knew where they were headed. The basement, her sanctuary and her prison.

Four hours later, she rolled onto her side, the movement making her moan and shake with exhaustion and pain. Bruised, bloody and covered in the muck that covered the basement, Sioned tried to muster the energy to get to her mattress so that the chill didn't worsen her injuries. She thought for a moment back on her punishment and smirked with pride, only to wince at the pain that motion caused. Not once through her punishment had she begged, although she had screamed. To give him that sort of power over her would have been fatal to her soul, if not her life. She crawled to her mattress, collapsing as soon as she was on it. Exhausted she fell into a restless sleep.

Blearily, Sioned opened her eyes, confused as to why she had woken. Then she heard the screeching from the basement door again.

"Get up here now! You've slept in, you lazy upstart! Don't even think about being fed until the list your uncle left you is completed, as well." With that the door to the basement slammed shut, the noise echoing harshly in the ensuing darkness. She sighed, getting up slowly, grunting with the pain this movement caused her. Breathing was difficult and her left hand was completely useless, swollen and, if her suspiscions were right, black and blue. She quickly lit several small candle stubs for light as she dressed hurriedly. Once done she went along blowing them out one by one. As she went to blow out the last one, she hesitated before glancing at the door. Satisfied that no one was about to barge in she knelt painfully in front of the candle. Bowing her head she murmured "Dear light in the darkness, if there is anyone who can help me please let them come and take me away from here as soon as possible. I'll be good for them, I promise. Always, your daughter, Sioned"

Feeling slightly bemused at the change to her normal behaviour, she shrugged, winced and set up the stairs to get to work on the list of chores her uncle had left her.


End file.
